First, some background: since 2011, Silk Road has operated as the Internet’s definitive black market, a place where drugs – from weed to heroin – and money changed hands in a safe (as in, from getting caught), anonymous manner. Watch this video for a local news network’s alarmed take:

Anyone outside of Silk Road’s dedicated community had to have seen it going down, eventually. There’s just no way that the DEA, FBI and any other acronym-ed government arm you want to consider would allow such an operation to continue.

Which leads us to October 2nd, when the FBI confronted website creator Ross Ulbricht, 29, seizing the website in the process.

According to the New York Times, Ulbricht was caught in a trap set by an undercover agent posing as a Road client. Ross contacted the undercover in an attempt to set up a hit (in addition to drugs, weapons and “favors” can also be exchanged through the site) on a former Road employee who Ross feared was going to snitch. A meeting was to take place in a San Francisco library, where, instead of an eager and willing hit-man, he met the FBI. I’ll wager that the story becomes a movie within the next 10 years.

Like anything else with drugs, your own opinion on the matter has a direct relation to the personal experiences you’ve had with substances. The more conservative members of the audience are probably terrified by the prospect of mail-order drugs; others probably shrug at the news, chalking it up as just another way to get high.

I will say this: I’ve had friends mail-order weed a handful of times, through different means than Silk Road. It’s not as uncommon as the NYT would have you think; like every other corner of society that it touches, the internet has blown the drug trade door wide open. Unfortunately (and I do believe that the dangers of such services outweigh the benefits), it doesn’t matter how much money is poured into stopping like-minded operations. New websites are bound to pop up. Just another reality we’re going to have to adjust to.

crazy how we were just speaking on this. The way dude was caught was actually because they caught some fake IDs he was ordering so he could upgrade servers. That tripped him up and lead to the arrest. He fucked up on some other shit. Kinda like when my homie got set up and sold coke to undercovers thru a snitch. Then they raided his house and found a room full of weed growing. The weed bust was a result of some other shit. Silk Road got taken down as a result of some outside shit. The feds got lucky. Theres plenty of other sites that are the same ebay of drugs type style.

I am a bit upset I knew nothing about this beforehand but c’est la vie. The idea has it’s merits BUT the fact that it included ways to hire hitmen, weapons and anything else your heart could dream of, meant getting shutdown was a impending reality no matter what happened.
However I would bet that the new marketplace has already been implemented. There is no way a group this savvy about how things are done would not prepare for this eventuality.

“and I do believe that the dangers of such services outweigh the benefits”

Why is that? It established a market with a system of feedback which helped ensure the drugs were of a high-quality. Compared to the street market which often produces drugs of considerably lower quality. Of course, even high-quality drugs can lead to harm if used irresponsibly. But if we accept that a drug is going to exist no matter what, wouldn’t you rather have one that moves pure drugs rather than adulterated ones?

sad day, but knew it would happen eventually. worst part is its alot of ppl who just loaded up cash that they got from somebody else that has been seized and now alot of people owe alot of money to alot of dangerous ppl smh

same shit can happen in real life offline as well. Thats why u NEVER take shit on the front and never middleman deals u can cover out of your own pocket. Anyone assed out like this has nobody to blame but their own dumbass. Getting money to go cop and come back is pookie shit.

true of course, but no matter what situation you are in life you always have no one to blame but yourself anyway. ill just say this, silkroad made it hella easy to flip somethin outta nothin literally.

Ay yo, somebody please tell me this is fake. No one was dumb enough to think this shit would last. I’m not a drug user (or illegal weapons user or in need of a hitman) so I’m not surprised that I didn’t know this existed, but I’m fairly certain that I subconsciously wrote this off as one of those things too stupid to try and do on a large scale.